41
by yan6
Summary: Usopp says goodbye to the only house he ever knew Part of the God Series: 1


Usopp groaned as he came to a skidding stop.

The path from his front door to his current position at the bottom of the hill was unnecessarily long, as evident in the bloodied gash on his head.

Usopp's face was pressed painfully to the ground and his left arm twisted unnaturally behind his back.

He was fine.

He rubbed his face against the dirt in an effort to reorient himself, the blood drizzling past his eyes and pooling on the ground beneath his cheek and chin.

He groaned again as he attempted to sit up, pushing the heavy backpack to the side and laughing to himself.

"This won't stop me!"

He wiggled out from under the overloaded pack and readjusted the strap on his satchel carefully as he surveyed everything that had tumbled out.

Usopp looked back up the path of his fall, eyeing the broken trees and trail of debris that once were a part of his front door and wall. He wiped absently at the blood on his face and smiled.

"It's just a prelude to the upcoming great adventures!" He yelled into the empty forest around him, grabbing a fallen item and holding it up to inspect it. "A good one to boot…"

Usopp trailed off, looking back towards what had been his home for years. The house he was born to, the house his mother raised him in, the house his mother died in.

A small pinkish-tan one-story with a little red mailbox that never had anything in it.

It was a good house. A safe place. A remnant of his late mother and the place his father had been his, well, father.

The only place Usopp had ever known.

A now he was leaving it.

He was leaving it to go on some dangerous adventure chasing the dreams of a pirate's son.

Usopp could feel droplets dripping from his face and onto the target in his hands. He raised one arm automatically to wipe the blood off but realized that the liquid was clear and not as thick as he expected. The tears continued to flow down his chin as he stared at the target in surprise, his mind not quite catching up to what was happening.

A sob raked through him as he clutched the target board close to his chest.

It was a painful feeling – all tight chested and strained lungs. He could pretend that it was because of the fall. He could pretend that it was because of the cut in his head that was streaking his face in his own blood. But it wasn't. The pain was distant and meaningless to the fear gripping his heart and attempting to pull the air out of his lungs.

He wanted to go. He really did. But he was afraid and worried and miserable – he didn't want to leave the only home he had ever known, the safe harbor that his mother had cared for him in, the place his father had said goodbye to them in. The memories that this island, this hill, that tiny broken house held for him was his entire life up till this point.

The home of Kaya and of the home of the Usopp Pirates.

His home.

A place where his dreams were born.

The place they would surely die if he stayed any longer.

Usopp thought of every sneer, every put-upon sigh, every groan thrown his way every time he spoke. He knew he wasn't well liked. Perhaps even outright hated. He knew his lies made people distrust not only him but also his aspirations.

Usopp could prove everyone wrong when they said he would never be able to follow in his father's footsteps.

He _would_ prove them wrong.

He _would_ become the greatest pirate to live. The greatest pirate ever seen.

Usopp would and he could and he was going to.

He just had to leave this island.

Usopp picked up the fallen trinkets, stuffing them back into the backpack while wiping the tears, snot, and blood off his face.

It was a messy affair and he opted to trudge back up to the damaged building to wash the remnants off that he couldn't scrub with grass and his hands.

He dried his hands on his pants and took one more look around the house. The leftover pieces of his father's bounty poster, the dressers that wouldn't fit on any boat he could get his hands on, the bed that he'd stripped bare.

This was the last time Usopp was going to see this place before he became a famous pirate.

Usopp may be a liar, but he would be the greatest lying pirate to sail the seas and no one would ever be able to say that he wasn't strong.

And one day, he would make every lie he had ever told _fact_.


End file.
